Texas lawmakers divided on goals in State of the Union speech

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama’s plan to increase taxes and fees on Wall Street and the nation’s wealthiest Americans ran into a solid wall of opposition Tuesday from Texas Republicans at the State of the Union address.

The plan, pitched as a way to provide middle-class tax relief for the middle class, had a familiar ring to many Texans’ ears. Few on either side of the aisle held out much hope for diminished partisanship in the new Congress.

“Tonight, we heard about new plans for more of these same failed policies,” said Houston Republican Rep. John Culberson. “His tax-and-spend agenda will add to our unaccountable federal bureaucracy. …That isn’t what Americans deserve.”

Culberson laid out an alternative set of well-known GOP priorities, including the repeal of the president’s health care overhaul, blocking his executive orders on immigration and reining in government spending.

Texas U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, the Republican Whip, took to the Senate floor in advance of the speech to take aim at the president’s tax proposals, which the White House first floated over the weekend.

“Sadly, the president has doubled down on the same agenda, which in his own words was on the ballot this last fall and was soundly rejected,” Cornyn said. “I think I speak for many Americans and many Texans when I say, Mr. President, enough is enough.”

Cornyn held out Texas as an economic model, a familiar refrain in the state’s GOP. “In my state, we have reduced taxes, we have cut red tape in favor of sensible regulations and we have encouraged businesses to come to Texas to grow and create jobs,” he said.

Texas Democrats in the House delegation fired back. “In stark contrast to the president’s economic vision for working families,” said Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Houston, “House Republicans will advance old proposals that are more special interest giveaways for corporate and wealthy interests.”

Rep. Lloyd Doggett, D-Austin, said “too many Americans have yet to feel the benefits of our continued economic growth. The president correctly focused on bread-and-butter concerns of the middle class and those working to join the middle class like child care, educational opportunity, sick leave and retirement security.

Rep. Kevin Brady of The Woodlands, a senior Republican on the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee, warned that Obama’s tax plans could slow the economy. “I predict the president’s stale, outdated demands for higher taxes won’t create a single new job, grow the paycheck of even one middle class family or help one more college graduate start their career,” Brady said. “We need to focus on growing our local economy, not Washington’s.”

Whether there is any room for common ground remains to be seen. Centrist Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Laredo, vowed to keep an open mind: “Ultimately, speeches are just words,” he said. “I stand ready and willing to back those words up with action by working with the president, Democrats and Republicans who will help fight for what Texans need.”